Nestlé and Nova SBE launch the 4th edition of the Open Innovation START and CO. 2022 program

Applications for the START and CO. innovation and entrepreneurship program opened on March 10 for start-ups wishing to develop and implement projects with an impact on the lives of people, their communities, and the environment. In this fourth edition, applicants are asked to submit projects responding to eight challenges which are themselves eight territories in which Nestlé works and for which it has already announced commitments.

- Generation/Regeneration - How can we shape the product life cycle with the aim of renewing and restoring the environment, promoting the advancement of regenerative food systems, and improving the well-being of communities?

- The priority of developing a healthy Portfolio - How can we find alternative, healthy solutions and redefine the future of food and nutrition, adding value for consumers?

- Empowering the senses - How can we be disruptive in the food space through multi-sensory product experiences and thereby increase the emotional connection with consumers?

- The rise of the new retail - Answers to the new retail trends of the future

- The renaissance of the Out of Home 3.0 channel - How to differentiate the offer in the Out of Home channel and provide new experiences to consumers?

- The home as the consumption space - How can we create spaces for our products and services in the ecosystem of the home, where they play a key role in people's lives?

- Digital interfaces of the future - How can systems interact seamlessly with consumers and be fully integrated with their lifestyle?

- New (digital) channels - What are the new ways to reach all consumers?

- Wildcards - Do you want to provoke Nestlé to co-innovate with them and develop a new complementary business opportunity or anticipate a future innovation challenge?

Applications to respond to these challenges should be submitted to the Start and CO. programuntil next April 22nd, through the website www.startandco.pt. The start of the 4th edition is scheduled for May this year.

START and CO. 2022 is the 4th edition of an initiative that results from a partnership between Nestlé and Nova SBE and the objective is to identify and select startups that want to grow by exploiting synergies and thus create new paths and future businesses in partnership with Nestlé.

Andreia Vaz, Head of Strategy & Innovation at Nestlé Portugal, underlined that "By sharing our challenges with the entire entrepreneurial community to co-create solutions with us that support our values of innovation and sustainability, we are adding value to how we can approach our role in society. The results of this challenge have been consistent year after year, and speak for themselves, in three editions we had 194 applications, 82 of them reached the pitch stage and 31 developed projects with us, some of them are already available in the market".

For Rui Coutinho, Executive Director of Nova SBE Innovation Ecosystem, "the partnership with Nestlé is a good example of the kind of open and collaborative innovation we are promoting in the Nova SBE Innovation Ecosystem through the Co.Innovation Lab. The co-creation and cross-innovation model we apply aims to achieve a tangible and substantial impact on Nestlé from an experimental and exploratory approach with startups that respond to concrete strategic innovation challenges for Nestlé Iberia. The programme aims to discover connections, bring external stimuli to leverage exploration, and transformation through innovative solutions from startups that can realise their idea, further develop the opportunity directly with Nestlé and implement a pilot test in the market by the end of 2022 through a viable and concrete partnership with commercial value for both entities. Nestlé Start and CO 2022 represents very well what we believe in at Nova SBE Innovation Ecosystem."

Running until the end of the year, the START and CO. 2022 program comprises 3 phases (Applications, Selection, and Co-Development), during which a series of activities will be carried out to identify the best projects.

As in previous editions, the selected projects will have the opportunity to develop their idea in a real market environment, where they can count on mentoring and training for the conception and development of their projects.

The previous editions of this partnership between Nestlé Portugal and Nova SBE have already resulted in 31 pioneer projects such as Buggle, Fidufoods, Goodbag, Macco Robotics, Petable, Phamo, and Progrow, among others, which continue to accelerate and collaborate with Nestlé in new business models, digitalisation of systems and online learning academies, both at an Iberian and European level.